


Mother

by RayByAnotherName



Category: Stargate - All Media Types, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Gen, Light Angst, Motherhood, Sentient Atlantis, Stargate Fic Exchange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:22:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24214378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RayByAnotherName/pseuds/RayByAnotherName
Summary: Vala has a conversation with Atlantis about why she alone is able to communicate with the sentient city.Written as part of the Stargate Fic Exchange over on Tumblr, hosted by Brightclam.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	Mother

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Shiggityshwa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shiggityshwa/gifts).



> Some Vala character development as requested!

Vala ran a hand over the walls of Atalntis as she walked down one of the hallways, "You're not half bad for an Alteran City." A cold chill slid down her palm and Vala chuckled, "Lantean, my apologies." The wall beneath her palm warmed.

Three weeks ago Daniel had dragged Vala to the city floating in the bay. Well, dragged might not have been the best word. Daniel had been walking up the gangway of a jumper when General O'Neill had shoved her on after him. 

"Someone's gotta look after the egg head," Jack had patted her on the shoulder, lips quirked up, "And better you than me."

Daniel's squawk of indignation had been met by the closing of the jumper door. Vala had been stuck here ever since, listening to Daniel argue incessantly with some man named Rodney about translations in some old database.

"Do any one of them realize you're listening in?" Vala looked up at the ceiling as the wall curved around a corner. She found herself staring at a doorway. It opened without her even noticing the panel beside it. "The colonel with the fluffy hair seemed quite protective of you." 

The room around her lit up with a dance of light. Behind her the door slide closed. Orbs of light floated around her - a hologram or a projection of some sort most likely. Vala smiled at them. 

"I see." Vala nodded, chuckling to herself, "I like to play things quite close to vest as well." The orbs bounced cheerfully around her head as Vala took steps further into the room. "That's what secrets are for after all." 

The lights continued to dance, oscillating in and out, creating large arcs around Vala. She hummed slightly, a chipper tune that the orbs quickly adopted as their cadence. 

One of the orbs paused in front of Vala. It was bright yellow, with a vibrant aura that stretched out twice the orb's own length. Vala wagged her finger at, "Now, now, I won't play favorites." All together, the orbs hummed. "Do you?" 

Another hum, lighter and sharper. Vala's nose scrunched up and her brow lowered. The orbs paused.

"I mean, why do you communicate with me? Of all the people that've come here you must admit I make an odd choice." Vala quirked her head to side. 

The orbs responded with a twitter as they continued their dance across the ceiling. They continued to hum, her own melody played back at her as Vala gaped at them. 

"I can hardly be the first mother to come to Atlantis!" Vala shook her head violently and her hands rose to her hips. "No. I distinctly remember one of the, uh, oh what's their name… Athosians? She lives here *with* her child!" 

No change came from the orbs as Vala gaped at them. 

Vala stomped her foot, "And I hardly qualify!" Her voice broke and Vala clamped her mouth shut. The light in the room dimmed. 

The orbs zoomed towards the center of the room, merging into one beam of light that stretched from floor to ceiling. Adria's face was projected out at her. Vala swallowed around a lump that formed in her throat. 

"She wasn't really mine. Not really." Vala shook her head. A watery chuckle escaped her lips. 

The image of Adria disappeared and the beam of light dimmed to a pale blue color. 

Vala sighed, "Yes… Yes, I suppose she was quite similar to a Lantean. She was… well, she was essentially an Ori, and they were Alterans too yes? Like the Ancients Daniel says built you?" 

A hum from the beam of light was the only warning before it widened, enclosing Vala in its glow. She gasped at the sudden warmth that encircled her, but shrugged it off to find herself standing in the gateroom. Sans gate.

"Uh…hello?" Vala took a step. The sound of her boot on the floor echoed off the walls. She cringed. 

"Mother!" A little girl came running down the steps from the command room. Curly brown hair and golden eyes. Vala's stomach dropped at the sight of her. 

The girl rushed into Vala's legs, arms wrapping tightly around her. Vala grit her teeth, "Please, stop."

"This is how you like to remember her, isn't it?" The girl's head dropped back and Vala found herself looking into soft blue eyes now. The girl frowned. "This is when she was most human yes? The most…questioning?" 

Vala shrugged, "I don't know if she was ever close to human to be honest with you. The Ori corrupted her from the very start." Absently, Vala found herself stroking the soft curls of the false image of her daughter. She stopped, "If you wish to talk with me this way, I'd prefer you to take a different form." 

"As you wish," the false Adria nodded her head as she took a step away. In a blink she was replaced with a very young boy. He had tan colored skin and dimples. "Is this acceptable?"

"Thank you, yes." Vala smiled and crouched down so she was now eye level with the avatar of Atalntis. "Is this someone else's child?"

The boy nodded, "The child of Teyla Emmagan." He giggled, "He's much too young to simulate properly, so we have extrapolated his likely appearance." 

"Makes sense," Vala puckered his lips in thought and nodded, "But why do you desire an avatar? We were communicating just fine before weren't we?" 

"We wished for you to see our true self," the boy gestured down at his body. "We could think of no other way to help you understand." 

Vala pursed her lips, "I'm afraid I still don't." She sank lower, sitting on the ground with crossed legs. "Why don't you try to explain anyway, and…and I'll follow as best I can?" 

The child quickly scampered into her lap, curling up like a cat ready for a nap. "We can only talk to those designated as Mother in our system. You are the first to come in many centuries who carries the appropriate sequence." 

"Ah…" Vala slid her hands through the avatar's short hair. The action elicited a sound not unlike a mewling noise. She chewed on her bottom lip as she consider the explanation, "Oh!" Her hand froze, "I carried Adria. Her Ori dna? That made her Alteran, that's the key isn't it?"

A smile spread across the child's lips and he nodded. "Yes."

"So… I have a different marker in my blood than the others, just like that Ancient gene that Daniel was going on about?" Vala's lip quirked up. "That's quite specific criteria." 

The boy nuzzled against Vala's midsection, "Only mother's can be trusted with a child." Vala racked her fingers through his hair again.

"And you are the child of the Lanteans." 

Pale blue eyes looked up at her, head tilted at an odd angle. It was a quizzical expression focused up at her, "Just as you were the Ori's mother." 

Vala chuckled, swiped at her eyes. "Yes. I suppose. I'd much prefer it in…in a different situation, maybe." 

"Do you not already have one?" Again, he nuzzled her midsection. Vala's hand froze. "Oh. You did not know." 

"No." Vala shook her head. She swallowed down bile as it rose in her throat. "No. Definitely didn't know."

A small hand pressed against her abdomen, "They are very new. A little flicker." The boy sat up in her lap, "We know they will be well." 

"Will they be, uh…" Vala closed her eyes, trailed off. She thought of all the things that had happened to her, all the…people, she had been. 

"They hold no Alteran genetic markers," the boy supplied in a low voice. He frowned up at her, "But you are still afraid?" 

Vala wrapped her arms around the boy, hugging this avatar of a city close. A warmth wrapped around her in turn. "If you can trust me as a mother, perhaps I can try to as well." 

"We know you will succeed." The warmth spread wider and when Vala opened her eyes she found herself in an empty room. Alone. The glow of a nearby light intensified as she walked out. Almost alone.


End file.
